Main menu

Post navigation

Completed Stippled Lily

Stippling is fun, but requires a lot of patience. Only now I realise actually how much detail about the subject you can portray just through lines and dots!

This is only my first attempt, so I’m no expert, but I can hopefully pass on some tips that I have learnt doing this exercise:

Start with a clean, clear line drawing. Include any details such a main veins, thorns, and any defining features such as small areas of pigmentation. Be happy with it before you start thinking about stippling. Once you have started stippling an area, adding lines on top is risky. It can end up very messy.

Lay down your dots in lines, not randomly. With randomly scattered dots it can be difficult to keep the form and tone even, and can look chaotic. Lay down lines of dots, varying in lengths and varying the distance between them to create your darker and lighter tones.

Take breaks. Laying down those tiny dots takes a lot of concentration. It’s very easy to want to power through, but you’ll soon realise your dots are becoming little lines, and your neat rows of dots are weaving all over the place and looking untidy. I reckoned 10 minutes stippling at a time was plenty! Lots of tea breaks…!

My next post will be of my completed SBA diploma Assignment 1. I will break down exactly what I have had to do, and show you the finished pieces!

10 thoughts on “Completed Stippled Lily”

Beautifully done. I like your advice, too; especially the one about taking breaks. I’m finding the same thing with drypoint printmaking. If I keep going with carving the design, I do start to get sloppy. It can be hard to stop, though! 🙂

Thank you Laura, this is just the technique that I find works best and gives the cleanest result. It is the way that is recommended to us on the diploma, although I have seen stippling done randomly looking very nice!